Field Test Results With Mechanical Harvesting Equipment in Florida Oranges

During the 1996-1997 season, mechanical harvesting tests were conducted with a canopy shaker, a trunkshake-catch harvester, and a fruit pickup machine. The canopy shaker, which moved continuously down one side of thetree row canopy, operated at 1.2 to 2.4 km/h. Orange removals ranged from 55% in larger diameter tree canopies to 95%in smaller tree canopies with machine capacities up to 25 t/h. The trunk shake-catch harvester removed 84 to 94% oforanges shaking 5 to 10 s per tree with machine capacities up to 10 t/h. The fruit pickup machine picked up oranges at15 to 20 t/h at 97% efficiency and caused 3 to 7% split peels from handling.